The varsity football team took a huge win against McClatchy on Friday, Sept. 2, but the Ripon High band kept the fans alive and led us to our first victory. Every week, the Ripon High band puts forth a lot of effort to learn fresh music for the home games. The band’s director, Geoffory Felver, responded to a few questions and provided some background information on the band’s activities. The band is currently working on a ton of projects and will be playing at the forthcoming Main Street Day, according to Felver.

“It depends how long it takes to learn new music,” Felver says, delighted to provide some knowledge to us because fans were interested in learning how the band operates on game days. “I have a young band this year just like the football team. I have six students who have never played an instrument this year but I gave them a new chart today that they will be playing tonight.”

Felver says that the band just had to learn one song in one practice in order to play well at the game. If you’re curious about how the band chooses its songs, they merely base their decisions on how the game or the plays are progressing. The band learns between 25 and 30 pieces by the end of the year and the band used to play at practically every sport in addition to formal concerts and football games. They now perform at two formal concerts each year. We learned a lot about the band from Felver, and everyone is quite eager to attend the upcoming events!